(July 25): Indonesia’s former top graft prosecutor was arrested on suspicion of money laundering, weeks after police raids uncovered US$26 million (RM106.35 million) worth of gold bars and cash at a house he owns.

Febrie Adriansyah, who was deputy attorney general for special crimes, was detained late Friday and escorted to a detention facility of the Corruption Eradication Commission for an initial 20 days, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) said in a statement on Saturday.

He had earlier Friday faced about 10 hours of questioning by the AGO, local reports said. Dressed in a grey long-sleeved batik shirt when detained, he was neither handcuffed nor wearing the pink vest typically worn by detainees in AGO custody, media photographs and videos showed.

A Corruption Eradication Commission spokesman told local media that it was holding Adriansyah at the AGO’s request and that authority over the investigation remained with the AGO’s prosecutors. 

Anang Supriatna, head of the AGO’s legal information center, said the case concerned alleged money laundering committed by state officials during their time at the agency. He didn’t disclose further details in the statement, citing an effort to avoid disrupting the investigation’s next phase and adding that the AGO was committed to upholding the presumption of innocence.

The detention ended days of speculation over whether Adriansyah would be taken into custody after police named him a suspect and another suspect in the case was detained. Adriansyah, who has denied owning the gold bars and cash, stepped down from his position at the AGO earlier this month in the wake of the police raids, which authorities linked to multiple cases of graft and money laundering. 

Police named Adriansyah a suspect before transferring the cases to the AGO, a move that drew criticism because it left the institution investigating one of its former senior officials. Confusion deepened after the AGO said Adriansyah would initially be questioned as a witness in a separate, newly opened money-laundering inquiry tied to the seized assets, even though he remained a suspect in one of the investigations transferred by police.

Adriansyah was questioned by prosecutors on July 17 but failed to appear for another questioning session Wednesday, citing illness.

The investigation exposes the thorny question of how the AGO will investigate and potentially prosecute one of its own in a high-profile case that has grabbed national attention amid President Prabowo Subianto’s promises to fight systemic corruption in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. 

Adriansyah was Indonesia’s most powerful anti-corruption prosecutor, overseeing some of the nation’s highest-profile cases, including investigations into state oil and gas giant Pertamina and former education minister and Gojek cofounder Nadiem Makarim. He also chaired a government task force that reclaimed millions of hectares of forest land from companies accused of unlawful use.

The office is also currently investigating Prabowo’s free meals programme, a multibillion-dollar initiative to deliver meals to more than 80 million students and mothers across the world’s fourth-most populous nation. The head of the program stepped down this week for health reasons, less than two months after her predecessor was detained in the probe.

Febri Diansyah, a former spokesman for the anti-graft commission, said Friday that he had been appointed to represent Adriansyah. Adriansyah’s previous lawyer, Hotman Paris, told reporters on Thursday that he had resigned, citing health reasons and plans to travel abroad for medical treatment.

Adriansyah’s detention came hours after the AGO swore in Kuntadi, the former head of the office’s asset-recovery agency who goes by one name, as his replacement.